Criminal charges are still a possibility amid an ongoing investigation into the fatal shooting on the set of Alec Baldwin’s Rust last week, which killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounded director Joel Souza.
“We haven’t ruled out anything,” Santa Fe District Attorney Mary Carmack–Altwies told the New York Times. “Everything at this point, including criminal charges, is on the table.”
Last week, Baldwin was rehearsing with a firearm on set when the gun was discharged, killing Hutchins and injuring Souza.
Reports about the incident claim Baldwin was informed the gun did not contain live rounds. But the prop masters union told its members on Friday that the gun did contain a “live round,” which refers to any item loaded into a gun, including blanks.
It is still unclear what kind of projectile was fired from the gun. Investigators recovered nine spent casings, as well as three black revolvers and “loose ammo” from the movie set.
Carmack–Altwies said her investigation is focusing on ballistics to determine what kind of round killed Hutchins, as well as who put the ammunition in the gun in the first place.
“There were an enormous amount of bullets on this set, and we need to find out what kinds they were,” she said.
The attorney also pushed back on Hollywood’s claims that Baldwin’s gun was only a “prop gun.”
“It was an antique-era appropriate gun,” she said, calling it “a legit gun.”
Carmack–Altwies noted it could take “weeks, if not months” before authorities will be in a position to file charges.
The shooting has raised questions about safety protocols on movie sets using firearms, specifically questions about whether the employees on set have been properly trained to handle them.
“I don’t recall ever being handed a weapon that was not cleared in front of me—meaning chamber open, barrel shown to me, light flashed inside the barrel to make sure that it’s cleared,” actor Jeffrey Wright, who has starred in the James Bond franchise as well as HBO Max’s popular Westworld series, said. “Clearly, that was a mismanaged set.”
